Laredo's Sassy Sweetheart (5 page)

“Oh, I’d lo-o-ove to sit with you-all,” she said silkily, and nudged Katy over with a hip. “Katy, honey, scoot over. You’re hogging the bench.”

Cissy sank onto the bench between Laredo and Katy, giving him a dazzling smile and an eyeful of cleavage as she sat. She sure smelled good—and her platinum locks brushed his bare arm. His mouth dried out.

What was it Ranger had said? He’d suddenly heard the call of the wild? Blinking to chase off the pea-soup inertia taking over his brain—which curiously came accompanied by a sound like horns warning ships to stay clear during dense fog—Laredo tore his gaze away from Cissy. He looked across the table at Hannah, who was staring at him curiously, her spoonful of quivering red Jell-O, halfway to her mouth. Like a drowning man, he focused on Hannah’s direct gaze and her wild and tousled hairdo and pulled his brain out of the drowning swirl it was caught in.

He might not have ever ridden a bull, but he knew when he was set directly on the horns of a dilemma. “Hannah,” he said, slowly and carefully, shutting
his ears to the call of the wild, “would you mind keeping Miss Cissy company? I’m going to walk Katy back to the salon because she needs to feed Rose.”

“Feed…oh, oh, sure,” Hannah said, catching on. “I’ll be happy to, Laredo.”

“Please excuse us, Miss Cissy,” Laredo said, nodding to her as he took his tray and Katy’s. “We’ll be seeing you around.”

Katy said goodbye to Hannah and Cissy, seeming more than happy to leave.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Laredo said as they walked out into the bright sunlight. “You looked like you were done eating.”

She smiled up at him. “I was happy to go.”

“Good.”

“Rose was an inventive excuse.”

“It was the truth. Since I slept in your room last night, I didn’t figure you’d had a chance to feed her. I picked her up out of her box, and she told me she wasn’t the kind of girl to be handled before she’d had her breakfast.”

Katy smiled, and he looked at her appreciatively. “You look real nice, Katy.”

“Thank you.” She hesitated before glancing up at him. “Laredo, are you sure you’re all right with riding Bloodthirsty Black?”

“I want to do it. It’s a personal issue for me, a goal I’ve set for myself.”

“Goals are good.”

“What are your goals?”

“To be a first-rate chemistry professor at Duke in the fall,” she murmured.

“Chemistry. I like chemistry,” he said, cupping her face with one hand.

“Really?” she asked.

“Unless Tex is talking about it. Then it has something to do with flowers and is annoying.”

“Some women like flowers,” she said on a breath as he stroked her cheek and then her chin.

“Tex’s flowers never mature,” Laredo told her. “They never get from bud to bloom. I prefer a more direct process for my goals.”

“Like, get on mad beefsteak, get neck broken by mad beefsteak?” she asked with a smile.

“Something like that.”

“You’re doing this out of a sense of responsibility. If I hadn’t dragged you into our salon, you’d be halfway to— Where were you going, anyway?”

“Anywhere,” he said, leaning down to place his lips gently on hers. “Somewhere,” he murmured, as he felt her still beneath him. “Probably nowhere as fun as Lonely Hearts Station.”

Then he kissed Katy the way he’d been wanting to since he’d first noticed her tush when she was mopping.

And when he felt her unstiffen, felt her relax against him and then felt her lips move under his, Laredo decided Katy was even better at kissing than mopping.

“S
ORRY THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT
for you,” Hannah said gleefully. “Guess your sexual grenades don’t
get Laredo’s attention. Maybe he’s more the subtle type. You know, sparklers instead of incendiary devices.”

“I wouldn’t say that. He ran out of here for a reason.” Cissy smiled with surety. “A man only runs when he’s afraid.”

“I’d be afraid of you, too, Cissy.”

Cissy tapped Hannah’s tray with a fingernail. “Pay attention here, country girl. He’s afraid of being
tempted.
”

“Oh, was that what made him run?” Hannah finished up her Jell-O and licked the spoon with smug contentment. “Temptation. Hmm. Remind me never to try that on a man.”

Cissy leaned forward. “Hannah, you may think you were working a direct angle with your little blueberry napkin-lined basket, but you saw how quickly
Ranger
did whatever I wanted.”

The smugness left Hannah’s face.

“Yes, Hannah, dear, one of us has kissed him, and the other has not.”

Hannah sat very still, watching Cissy with big eyes.

“So if I were you, I’d not be too quick with the congratulations to Katy.” Cissy stood. “I have only just begun. Besides, I melted Ranger easily enough. Why shouldn’t his brother be just as easy?”

“Is there a reason you can’t confine yourself to Ranger?” Hannah said, though it hurt like heck to say it.

“There is a reason, and it’s really none of your business,” Cissy said, her voice biting enough to make Hannah sit up straight.

“Can’t your salon win without cheating?”

“It’s not cheating if your cowboys always fall apart at the last second.”

And yet it would take a man of iron not to fall for Cissy and the Never Lonely girls. They just knew what it took to wind a man’s sex drive into full gear. Poor Katy didn’t have a chance against them. “Why does Marvella hate Delilah so much?” Hannah asked.

“I’m only an employee,” Cissy said with a toss of her beautiful hair. “I do what I’m told, and I make a good living. Can you say the same?”

“Well, we’re not performing the same tasks,” Hannah retorted. “So I don’t think we can compare paychecks. Cissy, do you think, just this once, you could leave a man alone? I think Katy really likes Laredo, and she’s just getting over a broken heart.”

“One never pulls back just when they’re about to win the war.”

“Excuse me, ladies,” a man’s voice interrupted. “Lars Van Hooven, photographer for
Playboy Magazine.
”

“Playboy Magazine!”
Cissy said, lighting up like morning sunshine. “I’m Cissy. How do you do?”

“Fine, thanks.” Lars glanced away from her to look at Hannah. “I met your friend over by the soda fountain, and I gave her a business card in case she decided to try out for our small-town girls pictorial.
But I forgot her name. Can you tell me what it was?”

“Katy Goodnight,” Hannah said with a pointed smile for Cissy. “Although I hate to dim your hopes, but I don’t think you’ll be hearing from her. Katy’s a shy, innocent kind of girl. A real diamond among bad fakes.”

Cissy stuck her tongue out at Hannah. Hannah winked back.

“Thanks for the info.” He tapped Katy’s name into a Palm Pilot, missing the byplay between the two women. “She’s exactly what we’re looking for.”

“Need a blonde?” Cissy asked, all her charm on display.

Lars shook his head as he put his organizer away. “Sorry. Thanks for offering. But what we have in mind is freshness, and that country sweetness. The world is really looking for innocence right now.” He nodded to them and left.

“Well, well, well,” Hannah said. “Totally immune to you.”

“Only because he’s gay, Hannah. I never said I could work miracles,” Cissy snapped.

“Freshness and country sweetness. Can you say
defeated,
Cissy? This war is lost.”

“We’ll see on Saturday, won’t we?” Cissy gave her a shriveling glare and stalked away.

T
HE SENSATION
of being thoroughly kissed by Laredo had Katy turned inside out. Everything in her
body felt weak and somehow shaky, feelings she’d never felt before.

It was too much, too powerful, too soon. Her heart had been betrayed last month, by her best friend and her fiancé. Nothing that felt this overwhelmingly hot and passionate could be taken slow and easy.

She felt as if she was standing square on the point of no return, and in serious danger of falling over the edge. Parts of her body she’d never known could react felt as if they were filling with liquid fire.

Before she could help herself, she pulled away from Laredo, blinking up at him in wonder.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked.

“I…I don’t know,” she said on a gasp. “I’ve never been kissed like that before.”

He smiled. “Then let’s do it again and go for two.”

But this was no light matter for her. Pieces of her had flown out of their usual reserved place, like glass chips missing from a window. She felt fragile in his arms, when she needed to be getting stronger.
Sweetheart?
Not her. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “Laredo…I’m not the girl for you.”

And then she ran into the Lonely Hearts Salon.

Laredo scratched his head as he watched Katy flee. Not the girl for him? Of course she wasn’t the girl for him. He wasn’t looking for a girl to be right for him. He was passing through town on his way to big things, whatever it was that he could pit his strength and his smarts against.

This stop in Lonely Hearts Station was just Big Thing #1.

Of course he liked Katy, liked her an awful lot. Wouldn’t want to hurt her.

And yet, he understood what she was saying. She didn’t want to be played fast and loose. She wasn’t available for a good time.

Fact was, she was right. Neither he nor any of his brothers had ever itched to be settled. Frisco Joe getting caught was a weird thing, but it had shown all the brothers that extra caution was called for or they’d all end up with a wife and a wailing baby.

Of course, Frisco was pretty dang happy.

Laredo thought about his father, who hadn’t been seen in years. He thought about his mother, whom he remembered mopping, cleaning, cheerfully making a home and a family with a rough man who’d adored her.

His dad hadn’t been able to stand it when the only gentle, sweet flower in his life died. He’d left Mason to raise a houseful of rowdy boys because the pain had been too great.

And that could happen to him if he wasn’t careful.

Katy was right: she wasn’t the woman for him. There would never be a woman for him.

He should never have kissed her.

He stepped off the curb to head toward the barn to find his brothers, whistling “On the Road Again.”

“Hi, Laredo,” he heard Cissy Kisserton say as he reached the middle of the narrow street.

“Hey, Cissy.” Now there was a woman who wouldn’t ask for more than he could give. Nor did he particularly care to give her anything, but there were girls one played around with because they understood the game, and other girls one married.

The kind of girl who understood the rules was eminently more fun, or at least had been before he met Katy. Not the girl for him? In spite of his agreement with her tidy statement, he was puzzled. Somehow Katy had hurt his feelings, and he briefly wondered if he was talking bravado through his cowboy hat.

“Laredo,” Cissy said with sweetly downcast eyes as she stood close to him, putting one hand on his T-shirt, “I have a confession to make.”

“A confession?” The hairs on the back of his neck seemed to stand up. Something about this woman had a very strange effect on him. It was like watching lightning dance across the sky and wondering if it might strike you if you stood in a wide-open field. He’d not seen Cissy when she wasn’t one hundred percent
on,
but right now she had her switch on low wattage, no radiance, dimmed to pleasing supplication.

“Yes,” she said softly, finally looking up at him with hugely aquamarine eyes, “Laredo, I’m afraid I lied to you about Bloodthirsty Black.”

At Malfunction Junction Ranch, there were also some untruths being suffered. All the Jefferson brothers seemed painfully aware of the sidestepping, reality-avoiding situation—except one.

Mason sent a glance around the table, eyeing his younger brothers. All present and accounted for, except Frisco Joe, who was in the Texas wine country with Annabelle and baby Emmie, and Laredo, Tex and Ranger, who were goofing off, best as he could tell.

Laredo and his crazy something-big plan. All Mason needed now was another catastrophe to hit, and he’d move out himself.

The front door opened and Mimi Cannady blew in, wearing jeans, a fluffy white sweater and a bright smile to match her new engagement ring. “Hey, everybody!”

Mason instantly lost his appetite. Diamond engagement rings seemed to have that effect on him, or maybe it was just Mimi’s two-carat princess-style
cut, as she’d described it to him. She’d seemed delighted with it, but he’d been unimpressed. What was he supposed to say: Gee, that’s the prettiest ring I ever saw? “Hi, Mimi,” he muttered along with his brothers, carefully avoiding glancing at her and her ring.

“Brought you some frozen key-lime pie.” She laid it on the table. “Where’s everybody else?”

“Gone to make jackasses of themselves,” Mason said sourly.

“More so than usual?” she asked, seating herself at the table in the seat that Laredo would have occupied, which just happened to be next to Mason. He could smell her perfume, and it smelled different to him than it had before.

No. It
was
different. “Did you change perfumes?” he demanded.

Mimi and his brothers gawked at him—and then Mimi smiled, bigger than he’d ever seen her smile. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d notice such a thing, Mason.”

“I noticed because I don’t like it,” he said hurriedly, though he really did.

Her smile flew off her face, and all his brothers scowled at him.

“You look real nice, Mimi,” Calhoun said.

“And you got a new sweater,” Last offered. “White looks nice on you, and it’s so soft.”

“Thank you for the pie,” Bandera said. “We’re not gonna share with Mason ’cause he’s a horse’s patoot.”

She laughed. “So, where are the Jefferson boys who are making donkeys of themselves?”

“They’re in Lonely Hearts Station. Laredo’s entered in a rodeo this weekend. He’s going to ride a bull named Bloodthirsty Black,” Archer said, to a round of chuckles.

“A bull? Laredo can’t ride,” she said, glancing at Mason.

“He’s making a fool of himself for a woman, on the pretext of noble intentions,” Mason said.

“Remember the Lonely Hearts ladies who helped us out so much?” Last said. “They needed a cowboy for a charity ride, so Laredo offered. But we think he’s really trying to impress Katy Goodnight.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” Mimi glanced at Mason. “That’s not being a jackass, Mason. That’s
romance.
”

He shrugged.

Last sighed. “I’ll get a knife for your pie, Mimi. Stay and have a bite with us, will you?”

“No, I’ve got to get back to Dad,” she said, quickly standing. “You
are
all planning to come to my wedding next month, aren’t you? It wouldn’t feel right not to have all my brothers there.”

Every head nodded—except Mason’s.

“We wouldn’t miss it, Mimi,” Last assured her.

“Mason?” she asked softly.

He held back the sigh that begged his chest to heave for release. His jaw locked to keep the words inside him, whatever they might have been. But this
was no time for spontaneity. This moment called for…realization.

Things had changed. Everything around him was changing, and it was all out of his control. The days when he was the captain seemed to have evaporated.

Still, a man went down with his ship.

“I’ll be there,” he said, a lukewarm response that was more a grunt than a promise.

“Thank you.” She glanced at him one last time, but he didn’t look at her. “Goodbye, fellas. I’ll stop by, maybe tomorrow, and check on you. You all are going to see Laredo ride, aren’t you?”

They seemed perplexed by that.

“He is your brother. And he very well may need last rites, for heaven’s sake,” she pointed out. “Of course, love is a wonderful cause to throw caution to the wind for.”

The brothers sat silently, although Mason became very interested in the seal on the pepper shaker.

“I reckon we’ll go,” Last said. “Wanna go with?”

She beamed. “I thought you wouldn’t ask. I will, thanks!” And then she left, the wind catching the door as she blew out, causing a noisy slam.

Silence descended after that. Mason could feel his brothers’ gazes on him. They didn’t need to tell him he’d been cantankerous and mean. He knew it. He just didn’t know how else to be around Mimi. Her getting engaged had stopped him cold, shocking him beyond words. In his mind, she’d always been
his
best friend. She was his troublemaker, his life of the
party. If there was some fun to be had, she knew how to find it, while he had no more clue about absurd hijinks than a schoolteacher. In a life that had early met hard responsibility, Mimi’s spirit had been his let-off valve.

He’d never imagined another fella in the picture.

But suddenly there was, and he was torn. Worse still, though he’d been prepared to dislike the city-slick lawyer in the fancy red sports car, Mason had found that he liked Brian O’Flannigan. He seemed just right for Mimi, a fact that annoyed Mason but which he also admired, when he forced his conscience to be objective.

His brothers got up to leave, taking the pie with them. Mason barely noticed. He sat at the head of the table, staring at nothing, thinking about things he really didn’t want to think about, mainly abandonment.

First his mother. Then his father.

Now Mimi.

It was, for reasons he couldn’t fathom, the deepest cut he’d ever suffered. No fun at all.

“H
I
, D
AD
,” Mimi said to Sheriff Cannady as she walked inside the kitchen of their home. “You’re up now.”

“I am.” He smiled at his only child. “You look pretty, honey.”

“Thank you.” She kissed the top of his head and pulled out another refrigerated key-lime pie. “Your favorite.”

Her father smiled, but his skin seemed grayer than it had yesterday. She was worried about him, more worried than she would tell him or anybody else. There was nothing that could be done about it, of course. Her father needed a liver transplant, and the list was long, the chances slim to none. They’d told no one in Union Junction, specifically because her father wanted to go out being the strong sheriff the people had elected for nearly twenty years running. She thought he had a right to that.

They had faced tough odds before. It had always been the two of them against the world.

She couldn’t face the thought of losing her father.

Time had run out for her, forcing her to grow up. Mason wouldn’t understand that an hourglass didn’t have forever to be turned over and over again, keeping the sand pouring continually, infinitely.

If it had been up to her, Mimi knew she would have waited forever for Mason.

Yet even she knew that forever was exactly how long she would have waited—because Mason would never have asked her to marry him. Mason didn’t love her. In his mind she would always be the ragamuffin next door, the little girl in ponytails who hung around him like a fun, colorful pest.

Her father’s illness had changed her priorities. She couldn’t wait any longer for a dream that would never come true. Like the best of fortunes, Brian O’Flannigan had come to help her father with some legal work and fallen head-over-heels in love with her.

It had felt so good to have someone fall for her, someone to want her so much that they were willing to give her half of themselves and so much more. Still, she loved Mason, even though she knew he wasn’t capable of loving her the way Brian did. A choice had to be made: she could be happy, or she could be sad.

Strange how her father’s life had made her choice easy.

Because if she was going to lose her other parent, the one who’d raised her and loved her with all his heart, she was determined that he was going to see his only child happily married.

And, if God heard her prayers, she was going to make her father a grandfather before he died. He was going to know his grandchild.

She was not prepared to let him go without seeing him hold her baby.

These were the odds she was up against, and Mimi had a well-deserved reputation for being a fighter. This was a battle she meant to win.

“M
AYBE IT’S TOO MUCH
to ask of Laredo,” Delilah said to Jerry the truck driver, who stopped into the salon every time he was near Lonely Hearts Station. They’d become friends and a bit more, in the last month, since he’d driven her and all her girls home from their trip to Union Junction.

Delilah enjoyed having a man around to talk to. Heaven only knew, her sister, Marvella, had stolen every other man in town. But Jerry was more than
just male company; he’d become a champion in her corner, and she desperately needed that right now. Picking stubbornly at the letters on a western shirt, Delilah pulled out the name of Lonely Hearts’ last champion who’d never even worn the shirt. “Maybe we should let Laredo off the hook and find another cowboy. Laredo barely knows the right end of the bull to hang on to.”

Jerry shrugged. “He offered.”

“So did you, but I turned you down.” She smiled sweetly at the man who reminded everyone of a jolly Santa Claus.

“Because I’m old and fat. That bull wouldn’t be able to lift his weight with me on him.” Jerry winked at her. “I say turnabout is fair play, anyway. They shanghaied our rider. What do you say we do the same to theirs?”

Delilah laughed. “I don’t think I can bring myself to cheat, no matter how much fun it would be.”

“Did you know that Cissy Kisserton’s out in the middle of the street talking to your cowboy right now?” Jerry asked, staring out the window.

Delilah jumped up from her chair and flew to the window. “That she-devil!”

He shook his head. “Of course, Marvella figures it worked so well last time, why not give it a go again.”

“Well, I’ll be!” She looked at Jerry. “Gosh, it’s not like we have the best of chances since our cowboy’s unproven!”

“Our own virgin cowboy,” Jerry agreed. “Does
seem like Marvella works just a little too hard at what should be a friendly way to benefit charities.”

“Maybe I’ll change my mind about cheating!”

He chuckled and kissed her cheek. “No one could blame you if you did, but I’d rather see you stick to the honest side.”

She was silent for a minute, weighing her doubts. “Jerry, I’ve already let half my girls go. They were lucky. They’re settling in Union Junction and opening their own shop. Katy and these other ten gals might not be so fortunate if I have to close up totally. Then how am I going to feel?”

“Like you did the best you could, honey. No one’s guaranteed a cakewalk in this life. You gave them fresh starts. Gave them what you had to give. If we get beat, me and you, we’re going ice-fishing in Delaware. Or Canada. For good.”

She heard the “we” and felt so much better. And yet—

“Jerry, this shop is all mine. It’s all I’ve ever had. When my husband died, I scraped for every penny. Then Marvella’s husband left her and we fell in love and got married. I did not steal him,” Delilah said with a steely eye. “Marvella has made me the scapegoat, but it was two years after they split up before I even saw her husband.” She sighed, the memories hard. “And then he passed away. After that, I was tired of burying husbands. I opened this shop, and it’s given me everything I’ve needed for the past ten years. More than anything, I’ve enjoyed the girls. They come here sad and hurting, and they get well,
and they go away healed. And I’m darn proud of that.”

“But you wouldn’t want to kidnap some hapless bull rider just to win.”

“I think I would!”

He laughed and tweaked her nose. “We’ll find another way. Come on. I’ll help you finish picking the letters off that shirt so you can put Laredo’s name on it. At least we can count on
him.
”